On April 2, the U.S. government offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Hafeez Saeed, the spiritual chief of Pakistan’s Lashkar-i-Taiba militant group and an alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

A yearlong investigation by ProPublica and PBS’ Frontline explored the role of American David Coleman Headley in planning the three-day raid by gunmen of Lashkar-i-Taiba supported by Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI.

As Propublica reported, Headley revealed that Saeed helped plan the Mumbai attacks. He credited Saeed for inspiring him to jihad and, after his arrest, told interrogators about Saeed’s ties to Pakistani intelligence. “He is very close to ISI,” Headley said of Saeed. “He is well protected.” (For more, see the complete coverage.) The U.S. State Department also offered a reward for Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, another senior Lashkar boss.

The announcements show how much U.S-Pakistani relations have deteriorated as the Obama administration has taken a harder line with Islamabad. When Headley was indicted in late 2009 for conducting reconnaissance for the attacks that killed 166 people, U.S. authorities tried to avoid diplomatic tensions by refraining from publicly identifying Lashkar masterminds involved in the deaths of six Americans and other Westerners as well as Indians in Mumbai.

Last year, U.S. prosecutors indicted midlevel Lashkar chief Sajid Mir, an ISI officer named Major Iqbal and two other accused plotters. Prosecutors detailed the ISI’s central role in the attacks during a federal trial in Chicago of an accomplice of Headley.

The case, along with the discovery of Osama bin Laden in a military garrison town, raised alarming questions about the ISI’s support for terrorism and escalated tensions with Pakistan.Although U.S. prosecutors have not indicted Saeed, the offer of the reward is clearly intended to increase pressure on Lashkar, the ISI and the Pakistani government.

Saeed is a powerful public figure in Pakistan and has held mass rallies in recent months in which he denounced the West and India.Pakistani authorities have occasionally placed him under brief house arrest, but Western and Indian counterterror officials say he continues to run Lashkar with the support and protection of the Pakistani government.

Pakistani authorities have also refused to arrest Mir, Major Iqbal and other suspects despite abundant evidence against them. Their whereabouts, like Saeed’s, are well-known.

The trial in Pakistan of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Lashkar’s military chief, and a few others charged in the Mumbai case has stalled. As ProPublica reported last year, Lakhvi continues to lead the group from jail and authorities have refused to confiscate his cell phone despite a direct appeal from a senior U.S. official to the director of the ISI.

“This is a name-and-shame tactic directed at two of the most public figures in Lashkar,” said Stephen Tankel, an American University professor and author of the book “Storming the World Stage” about the group. “It appears to be part of a long-term effort to exert pressure on the Pakistani government.”

by Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica, April 3, 2012, 2:22 p.m.

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In the early hours of Saturday, a group of unknown assailants forced their way into the house of US-citizen Warren Weinstein, an expert in international development who has been working in Pakistan for at least five years.

After overpowering security guards, they abducted Mr. Weinstein but someone has yet to claim responsibility.Lahore police chief Ahmed Raza Tahir told Reuters that a few people have been detained for questioning, including a guard posted at the house. “We hope to recover him soon,” he added without further details.

Abductions are relatively common in Pakistan and usually it is local people who are targeted for ransom. A few foreigners have been taken by militant groups.

In the BBC report, security guards were tricked to open the door before dawn on Saturday by men with food offerings for the fasting month of Ramadan. Alberto Rodriquez, a US embassy spokesman, confirmed the kidnapping and said American authorities was working with local police on the case.

Mr Weinstein, who is in his late 60s, has been identified as an employee for J.E. Austin & Associates, a Virginia-based consulting firm, on a development project in areas where Pakistani troops have been battling Islamist insurgents for years, according to Reuters.

The case is putting pressure on an already strained relationship between Pakistan and the United States which have been deteriorated since the US military raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden inside Pakistan in May.

Already in February, an American CIA contractor Raymond Davis caused anger when he shot who men whom he claimed were trying to rob him in Lahore.

According to the BBC, Mr Davis was released and returned to home after the US paid compensation to the deceased’s families.

The preceding abduction cases include a Swiss couple who was kidnapped in July by Pakistani Taliban. Last year, five-year-old Sahil Saeed, a British citizen, was kidnapped while visiting his grandmother in the Punjab region. He was released after 12 days on a $180,000 ransom.

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The relationship among United States and Pakistan  was damaged at a certain degree, due to the fact that Osama bin Laden was found in Pakistan.

Yesterday, the United States senator, John Kerry democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, landed in Islamabad. He claimed that the ties between both countries were severely damaged, but he emphasized that this situation was needed to be treat in an adequate and careful manner, since a good, and stable relationship is crucial for both sides. During his visit, he claimed that both countries had agreed to: “ work together in future actions, against of great value objectives in Pakistan”.

In his visit he made clear his position. “ I did not came to apologize, for what I consider a triumph against terrorism without precedents, but I came to talk about how we should manage this significant relationship”, stated yesterday Kerry.

In a report taken from the Associated Press, Kerry expressed the following:

“The important thing is to understand that major, significant events have taken place in last days that have a profound impact on what we have called the war on terror, a profound impact on our relationship as a result,” Kerry said.

He added, “We need to find a way to march forward if it is possible. If it is not possible, there are sets of downside consequences that can be profound.” Both countries are strategic partners and have a strong dependence on each other. They both share the same enemy, which is terrorism. The senator added: “ Both have sacrificed so much, that there is no pint to allow a relationship break up “.

Kerry added that he counted with the backup and support of the President Barack Obama. He made clear, that the strategic solutions to improve the bilateral relations would be based on the actions taken, rather than words.

The senator Kerry, acted as a very important figure since it is the first American that visits Pakistan after the Geronimo Operation, which lead to the kill of Osama bin Laden, the 2 of May. The American Senator handed a list of “ Concrete Requirements” to the Pakistani Chief of State, Ashfaq Kayani, in order to ease the relationship and erase any doubt or suspicion regarding that the Asian country host’s terrorist.

John A. Boehner, The House speaker, who went to Pakistan last month, said on Thursday that the United States should remain engaged with Pakistan as an ally against terrorists, but that Pakistani leaders must demonstrate their determination in fighting terrorist groups. He stated: “It’s time to look the Pakistanis in the eye and get a commitment that they are fully onboard with us. If we’re going to continue to provide aid and strengthen this relationship, I think we need to have a clearer understanding.”

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2011 March 2nd  in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan the Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti died.

He was driving through a residential district in broad daylight going to a work meeting after leaving his mother’s home, when suddenly his vehicle was surrounded by several armed men and sprayed with bullets. Witnesses said that before to open fire they asked the minister’s driver to get out of the car sparing his life.

“The initial reports are that there were three men who attacked him. He was probably shot using a kalashnikov, but we are trying to ascertain what exactly happened”, said Wajid Durrani, Islamabad police chief. At the arrival to the capital’s Shifa Hospital his corpse was already lifeless.

The Minister Bhatti was traveling with no security escort when the attack happened .It is not clear yet the reason why he was not accompanied by his guards and did not have the standard ministers’ security vehicle.

In recent weeks he expressed his concern about security after he received death threats from some Islamist militants for his efforts to reform the blasphemy law. He explicitly requested extra security when some shots were fired at his residence in Islamabad by some unknown aggressors and the capital’s police chief insisted that proper security had been provided to him, but inexplicably that fateful day no escort was accompanying him.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab,a branch of the Taliban in the most populous province of Pakistan, claimed the responsibility of the attack. “This man was a known blasphemer of the Prophet [Muhammad]. We will continue to target all those who speak against the law which punishes those who insult the prophet. Their fate will be the same”, said Ahsanullah Ahsan, the group’s deputy spokesman. At the scene of the killing were found pamphlets by the Tehrik-i-Taliban and Al-Qaeda warning anyone opposing the blasphemy laws of the same fate of Shahbaz Bhatti.

The blasphemy laws in Pakistan are the strictest among all the Muslim-majority countries. The religious feelings’ outrage is forbidden, the defilement of the Quran is punished with life imprisonment, and the death penalty is prescribed for the “use of derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet”.

Bhatti had always criticized the Pakistan’s blasphemy law and had struggled for the support and the saving of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman mother of four children, sentenced to hang in Punjab in November 2010. She was charged with blasphemy for having insulted the Prophet Muhammad during a row with Muslim women villagers about sharing water. She denied the charges and although the minister Bhatti supported her nothing could be done to save her.

Also the governor of the province of Punjab, Salman Taseer, had strongly opposed the blasphemy law and had fought for the presidential pardon for Bibi. On January he was shot and killed in Islamabad by one of his bodyguards,who has been acclaimed as a hero by many people in the country. For both Tasser and Bhatti their involvement in the recommendation to amendments to the blasphemy law has been the cause of their death.

The event was condemned by the government and by the Christians,that in Pakistan are the 1,5% of the Pakistan’s population.

“We have been orphaned today!Now who will fight for our rights?”, told Rehman Masih, a Christian resident of Islamabad.

Shahbaz Bhatti in all his political career had always supported the religious minorities and he dedicated his life to struggle for human equality, social justice, religious freedom, and to uplift and empower the religious minorities’ communities.

With his death Pakistan lost a fundamental figure that represented a gleam of hope for the minorities for equality and freedom in a country where the civilization and the essential human rights are just an utopia.

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